Magnetic fastener

ABSTRACT

A QUICK DETACHABLE FASTENER FOR ATTACHING ARTICLES TO SHEET MATERIAL HAS AN ANNULAR RING MAGNET AND ARMATURE WITH A CENTRALLY DISPOSED GUIDE POST FOR MATING WITH THE ANNULAR RING TO MAINTAIN THE ARMATURE AND MAGNET RING IN PROPER ALIGNMEMT, AND A CLAMP ATTACHED TO THE ARMATURE FOR SECURING THERETO AN ARTICLE TO BE MOUNTED, THE SHEET MATERIAL BEING HELD BETWEEN THE ARMATURE AND MAGNET BY THE MAGNETIC ATTRACTION THEREBETWEEN.

United States 3,618,174 Patented Nov. 9, 1971 3,618,174 MAGNETICFASTENER Herbert Schainholz, 316 Locust St., Teaneck, NJ. 07666, andlPeter Katz, 18 lLocust lllace, Livingston, NJ.

Filed Feb. 4, 1970, Ser. No. 8,655 lint. Cl. A44b 21/00 U.S. Cl. 24--732 Claims ABSTRACT` F 'li'HlE DISCLUSURE This invention relates tomagnetic fastening means and more particularly to quick detachablemagnetic means for attaching articles to thin materials such as cloth,plastic, paper sheeting or the like.

It is desirable to attach articles to thin sheets of material and yet beable to quickly move the articles to another location or remove thementirely. For example, certain medical procedures fo1 patients conned tobed require that infusion or drainage tubes lead from receptaclesexterior to the patients bed and communicate with the patients body.Such tubing is usually fastened to the patients body means of adhesivebacked tape and also to the bed sheets by means of a safety pin,adhesive tape or other fastening device which temporarily holds thetubing in place until the fastening means is released. Oftentimes,movement of the patients body will cause the tubing to be pulledtherefrom or will tear the bed sheets, inasmuch as a fastening deviceholding the tubing to the bed sheet will not freely yield and allow thetubing to move with the patient.

Furthermore, such fastenings also have the disadvantage of requiringtime to assemble and disassemble to that the article being fastenedcannot be quickly and simply moved to a new location when desired.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide fastening meansfor quickly attaching and detaching articles to sheet materail, whichmeans instantly releases the article after a predetermined force on thearticle is exceeded.

The invention accordingly comprises a permanent magnet and an armatureof magnet material having a clamp disposed on one side thereof forsecuring thereto an article to be mounted, and aligning means mounted onthe other side thereof for aligning the armature to the magnet. Byinterposing a sheet of material onto which p th'e fastener is to beattached, between the aligning means and the magnet and pressing the twocomponents together, the magnetic attraction therebetween `will hold thecomponents in an assembled condition in a selected location. A forcesupplied to the article, sufficient to overcome the magnetic holdingforce, will quickly disassemble the fastener and allow the article to bemoved to a new location.

Other features, advantages and additional objects of the presentinvention will Ibecome manifest to those skilled in the art upon makingreference to the detailed description which follows in the accompanyingdrawings in -which the preferred structural embodiments incorpo ratingthe principles of the present invention are shown by way of illustrativeexample only.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the elem'ents of a magnetic 4fastenerembodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary cross-sectional View of the fastener elementstaken along the lines 2-2 of FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the magnetic fastener of thepresent invention attached to sheet material; and

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of a modification of the presentinvention.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the fastener of the present inventionincludes an armature 10, which may be disc shaped and formed from asuitable magnetic material such as steel. A post 12, formed from plasticor integrally formed from the armature itself or from other magneticmaterial, and a clamping device 14 are ach held to opposite sides ofarmature 10 by means of a pivot pin 16 which passes through armature 10.The assembly of these elements is such that the clamp 14 is free torotate about pin 16. Positioned beneath armature l0 is an annularpermanent magnet 18 which preferably has a wafer-like configuration tominimize its bulk. It is, however, understood that the magnetic wafermay be rectangular, cylindrical or any other suitable shape. Forillustrative purposes, magnet 18 is shown as being generally cylindricalin form. Magnet 18 is preferably magnetized transversely along one ofthe larger sides thereof, rather than axially, in a manner such that thesurface adjacent to armature 10 when the fastener is in an assembledcondition, has a stronger magnetic field than the opposite or bottomsurface.

Clamp 14 may comprise any clamp suitable for securely holding a desiredarticle to be mounted in a selected position by the fastener of thepresent invention. For purposes of illustration, however, clamp 14 maybe formed from plastic and is shown as comprising a toothed projectingmember 20 with a strap 22 having slots 24 disposed therein. Strap 22 isarranged in an article securing position by wrapping it around anarticle to be mounted, then placing a selected one of slots 24 overmember 20, engagement of one of the teeth of member 20 with the walls ofa selected slot 24 being effective to hold the strap in a desiredposition.

To attach the fastener to sheet material, armature 10 is first aixed tothe article to be mounted by means of clamp 14. For example, a length ofplastic tubing 26, as shown in FIG. 3 may be attached to armature 10 byclamp 14. Post 12 is next placed in a desired location on the selectedsheet material 28. Magnet 18 is then located beneath post 12 with thesheet material 28 interposed therebetween. Armature 10 is then attractedto magnet 18 by the attractive force thereof, causing the sheet material28 covering post 12 to be pushed into aperture 30 of magnet 18. Post 12and aperture 30 are dimensioned with respect to each other to provide asnug fit with sheet material 28l yfilling the space between adjacentwalls thereof. The strong attractive force of magnet 18 will holdarmature 10 in an assembled relationship tightly against the sheetmaterial interposed therebetween, with post 12 maintaining armature 10and magnet 18 in alignment with each other and serving to oppose anytendency of a transverse or sliding separation upon application of ashearing force. However, the force of attraction of magnet 18 is not sogreat that it can not be overcome by a relatively hard pull on tubing 26or such other article as may be held by clamp 14.

While the fastener of the present invention may be used with anysuitable thin material as, for example, rubber, plastic, paper or fabricsheeting, which is sufficiently pliable and resilient to withstand theindenting caused by post 20 when inserted in magnet 18, the invention isparticularly advantageous when used with common bed sheeting supplied tomedical patients. 'It will be seen that by means of the presentinvention, tubing, cords, or other apparatus desired to be temporarilymounted to the bedding of a medical patient confined to bed, can berapidly attached to the bedding in any desired location without fearthat the movement of the patient will either disconnect the article somounted, or cause the bedding to be torn as is often the case when thearticle is fastened to the bedding by means of a safety pin.

A modification of the invention is shown in FFIG. 4 wherein armature 10is formed into a shell or a cup-like configuration withcircumferentially depending sides and post 12 is omitted. Shell 32 isdimensioned with respect to wafer magnet 18 such that it will fit snuglythereover as a substantially complete cover, yet allow sheet material 28to be interposed therebetween without permanently deforming or damagingthe material. As in the embodiment mentioned above, a suitable clamp 14is attached to shell 32. Furthermore, wafer magnet 18 need not have anannular configuration but may have a solid body.

It is to be understood that it is not necessary that the armature andwafer magnet of the present invention have a circular configuration andthat other suitable configurations of these elements, such as square orrectangular shapes, may be used if desired.

We claim:

11. -A lquick detachable magnetic fastener for removably fasteningarticles to sheet material comprising, an annular permanent magnethaving an axial hole therethrough, an armature, means mounted on saidarmature for attaching thereto an article to be fastened to said sheetmaterial,

and a post attached to said armature and extending outwardly therefromto mate with said axial hole and position said armature adjacent tocomplementary surfaces of said magnet, said post and said complementarysurfaces of said magnet being dimensioned to provide a spacingtherebetween sufficient to allow said sheet material t0 vbe interposedbetween said magnet, said armature, and said post, the magneticattraction between said armature and said magnet being'operative toclamp said sheet material therebetween to maintain said article in aselected position.

2. The invention defined in claim 1 wherein said armature is a fiat dischaving said post integrally formed thereon, and said article attachingmeans is pivotally mounted on said disc.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,164,623 7/1939 Posner 24-73.l51UX 2,615,227 10/1952 Hornik 24-201 B X 2,693,654 11/1954 Clark 24-201 BX 3,000,016 9/1961 'Ridge 24-73 .151 X 3,054,585 9/1962 Roberts et al.248-74 PB 3,392,729 7/1968 KLenoir 24-245 X FOREIGN PATENTS 743,8211/1933 France 24-81 HS 374,845 3/ 1964 Switzerland 24-201 B DONALD A.GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 24-73 SH

